Mercedes, BMW and Audi to compete in Super Bowl advertising race

BMW is making a comeback to Super Bowl advertising game. The new ads, which remain unknown at the moment, will air during the February 6th …

BMW is making a comeback to Super Bowl advertising game. The new ads, which remain unknown at the moment, will air during the February 6th broadcast of the worldwide popular event. BMW is joining its competitors Audi and Mercedes in delivering innovative and attractive TV ads.

This is the first all three German luxury brands are advertising at the biggest U.S. television event. At last year’s game, advertisers paid $3 million for a 30-second slot, according to The Nielsen Co, quoted by Automotive News.

BMW bought two 30-second spots and will advertise during the Super Bowl for the first time in 10 years, Jim O’Donnell, head of BMW’s U.S. unit, told reporters at the Detroit auto show.

Just days ago, BMW announced a Facebook contest featuring the new X3. Contestants try to guess the configuration of the car to be featured to win a two-year lease and a trip to the factory in Spartanburg where the new X3 is being built.

Mercedes-Benz joins the Super Bowl marketing race with a bang by signing up tennis star Serene Williams tweeting mom from suburban Chicago to add online buzz to its first advertising appearance during the Super Bowl telecast.

Lexus won’t follow its German rivals to the Super Bowl. The Toyota unit, which saw its U.S. lead over BMW shrink by more than half in 2010, won’t air any spots or sponsor game-related events, said Allison Takahashi, a Lexus spokeswoman in Torrance, Calif.

Making a habit of delivering ads that take on its competitors, Audi began airing a 60-second spot as a run-up to Audi’s fourth straight Super Bowl campaign. The ad portrays the flagship Mercedes-Benz S-Class turning off its lights followed by the tagline “Goodnight old luxury”.

In 2010, the Super Bowl was watched by 106.5 million people, making it the most popular American TV program ever, according to TV audience rater Nielsen. Despite the high price tag of a 30-seconds or less ad, the market and demographic reach is the largest within any advertising medium.

The three automakers turn their attention to social media and Facebook and Twitter campaigns have already begun or will begin before the Super Bowl. Mercedes is sponsoring a tweet race in which teams driving specially-equipped vehicles need to generate traffic on Twitter to win a C-Class coupe.

The three-day race, which starts Feb. 2, features hip hop artist Rev Run from the group Run-D.M.C., tennis star Serena Williams, rock musician Pete Wentz and New York Yankees baseball player Nick Swisher as coaches to drum up traffic. The celebrities each have more than 1 million Twitter followers.

We consider this an interesting choice from Mercedes since their average U.S. customer is said to be around 54 years old, according to San Diego-based researcher Strategic Vision.